This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Planetary gearsets have been widely used in various power transmission devices to provide a torque multiplying or gear reduction function. Planetary gearsets typically include a sun gear, a ring gear and one or more planet gears continuously meshed with the sun and ring gears. The shape of each of these gears is typically based on a cylinder having circumferentially spaced apart teeth formed on an external or internal surface of the cylinder. The gear teeth may have a spur or helical shape.
Known processes used to manufacture the gears of a planetary gearset include hobbing, shaping, rolling, shaving, grinding and planing. Some gears, such as a ring gear having spur teeth, may be formed using a broaching process. Each of the previously described known processes require very expensive machines to form an involute shape on the gear tooth flanks. These processes are relatively time consuming and expensive. Accordingly, it may be beneficial to develop a different gear forming process to reduce the time and cost required to form the gear teeth.